


Comfort Through Thunder

by incensive



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Comfort, First Kiss, M/M, fear of thunder, mentions of others in the team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:46:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incensive/pseuds/incensive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another case finished but it’s late so the team decides it’s best for them to fly in the morning so they stay in a hotel for the night. A thunderstorm occurs and Reid is awake and afraid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort Through Thunder

**Author's Note:**

> this is basically my first little one-shot, so i'm sorry if it sucks. thanks for reading! might slightly stray from their past. it was changed [?] a bit to suit this.

Another case had come and gone, and there was now families with answers that their child died from a serial killer that enjoyed electrocuting his victims to death to the sound of thunder. It was around 1 am, and the team decided it was best to stay in a hotel for the night and fly in the morning.  
  
They stood in the lobby of the hotel, three pairs of keys in JJ’s hand. “Blake and I will room together,” JJ started, ”Morgan and Rossi will room together, and then Reid and Hotch will room together. There’s going to be a thunderstorm through the night until about 10, so we’ll fly at about noon.” A lump formed in Reid’s throat.  
  
“Storm?" Every since more cases using electricity had come in, Reid had started to wake up to thunderstorms, spending less time sleeping and more time with his fears arisen from his early childhood. Hotch has been noticing he’s been drinking more coffee and showing up at work with more dark circles after thunderstorms.  
  
Hotch sensed Reid’s nervousness, and turned to him to study his features. He studied Reid rubbing his sweaty hands on his pants and messing with his pockets to distract himself. Reid clenched and unclenched his fist several times.  
  
JJ faced Reid, not noticing his nervousness. Though they all had years of experience of profiling, nobody except for Hotch noticed.  
  
“Yeah, I don’t think it’ll be that big though, so we’ll be good with flying tomorrow.” JJ handed the keys to everyone. “I’m heading off to bed, good night.”  
  
Reid cleared his throat. “Y-Yeah, goodnight JJ.” They stepped into the elevator, and they all selected their floors. Once everyone else had gotten off at their floors, Reid and Hotch were the only ones in the elevator.  
  
“Are you okay, Reid?” Hotch questioned Reid. Reid turned to him, clearing his throat yet again.  
  
“Uh, yeah, what makes you say that?” The elevator dinged and they stepped out, heading towards their room.  
  
Hotch unlocked the door and he said,”Once JJ mentioned a thunderstorm, you started getting nervous and a bit scared.” Reid let out a small, “Oh,” as they stepped into the hotel room and flicked on the lights. They said nothing as they chose their beds. Hotch was closest to the doorway just in case someone tried to break in and attack them, so he Reid wouldn’t be hurt first and would have time to run and help. Reid was next to the window to distract himself if he ends up waking up late at night and can’t go back to sleep.  
  
Hotch still studied him closely, and when Reid noticed, he spoke in a small voice. “Go to bed, Aaron. I’ll be fine.” A small wave of shock went through Hotch’s body. Reid only called him Aaron every so often, and when he did, he was never used to the way he said it, nor the way he always seemed to lick his lips after. Hotch heard in Reid’s voice that he didn’t want to be questioned and saw in his posture and body language that he felt awkward being the center of Hotch’s attention.  
  
“Alright, but if you need anything don’t be afraid to wake me.” Reid gave a small nod and let out a small breath, and they both got ready for bed. Reid usually slept only in his boxers but thought that it’d be unusual for Hotch to see his coworker stripping into only a pair of underwear. He goes into the bathroom and instead decides to slip into a pair of his pajama bottoms that he brought in his go-bag that he brings just in case for cases and keeps the shirt on from the day. He steps out of the bathroom and spots Hotch under the covers of his bed already, so he silently walks over to his own bed and slips under the sheets. It takes him several times to fall asleep with the thought of the thunderstorm in his mind, but eventually sleep comes to him.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————  
BOOM! A crash of thunder jolted Reid awake. Frightened, he felt flat on top of the rug next to his bed. The loud booms of thunder made him flinch and he scrambled away from the bed a corner of the room that faced Hotch’s bed.  
  
When he was younger, he would crawl into his mother’s bed during thunderstorms and she would read him books to help him sleep. Eventually, his fear faded and he no longer needed her to read Charles Dickens to him to sleep. Now, he missed his mother. He has for years, but he’s also missing her ability to make him fall asleep even when he was afraid. He looked at the bright clock on their nightstand which blinked in bright red, 2:46 A.M.  
  
Reid placed his knees to his chest and dropped his head against then, remembering Hotch telling him to wake him up if he needed anything, but didn’t want to bother him and his precious sleep. Another boom of thunder released an involuntary whimper. Reid tried to do the trick “if you can’t see what you fear, there’s nothing there to be afraid of,” but the large noises had kept him awake, shaking, and afraid.  
  
For the last few months, the thunderstorms had kept him awake just like that night. He always tried to read a book until he fell asleep, but the thunder was too loud and shocked him too often to allow him to concentrate, so he generally sat in the corner away from the windows or paced around the room. He felt that pacing around the room would wake up Hotch, so he chose the slightly more silent option.  
  
More thunder and a couple of hours later, Hotch stirred awake to the sound of whimpering. He glanced at the clock that read 4:57 A.M. and his eyes traveled further to the empty bed. He quickly sat up with a quick, “Reid?” His eyes searched the room in search of the handsome, lanky man, noticing him shaking in the corner in front of him, shaking. Hotchner slipped out of the bed and stalked around his briefcase that sat next to the bed towards Reid.  
  
He kneeled down in front of Reid and spoke in a soft voice. “Spencer?” and Reid looked up. Hotch rarely ever called him by his first name. Hotch softened as he saw the fear and embarrassment in Reid’s eyes and tears streaking his cheeks. In a flash of a second, he felt Reid wrap his arms around him for comfort and stiffened for a second, not used to being hugged by someone other than his own son or Haley since years. Reid’s breath smelled like coffee and his body smelt of books and was warm to the touch. His body adjusted to the feeling and he then wrapped his arms around Reid in a protective, comforting manner. They stayed that way for minutes that went too fast, before Hotch said slowly, “Let’s get you to bed, Spencer.”  
  
Hotch got Reid to his feet and grabbed his hand. Reid shuffled his feet as he was led towards their beds. The sound of the storm caused him to jump. He had almost forgotten. Hotch turned to Reid. “Do you need to sleep in my bed with me? I used to do the same when I was younger with my mother to help me sleep and remind me that I’m not in a horrible place and that I am alive.” Reid slowly nodded, a faint blush on his cheeks, hands still shaking from earlier. Aaron turned back around and lifted the sheets up to the side of the bed closest to the window.  
  
“That’s for you, so you can keep your back to the window so you won’t see the lightning.” Hotch let go of his hand and went around the bed to his side while Reid immediately felt an empty spot in his hand, like his hand was supposed to be there, holding his. They both slipped into their sides of the bed, facing each other. Perhaps they both felt the emptiness in their hands, until they had rejoined their hands. Hotch spoke softly. ”I’m here if you need me, Spencer.” They gave a comforting smile at each other. It took Reid a bit of time, and Hotch stayed up until he did, but he had finally fell asleep.  
  
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————  
They had awoken at about 9:30 AM. Not enough sleep for Reid, Hotch thought. He’d get Reid to sleep more on the plane. They sat at the table, Hotch next to the window sitting across from JJ with Reid sitting next to him. About 15 minutes into the flight, Spencer had slipped his hand into Hotch’s hand and when Spencer looked up at him, Hotch let out a small smile and Reid’s stomach fluttered.  
  
The toll of the limited amount of sleep that past case had hit him, and he had slowly fallen asleep on Hotch’s shoulder. Hotch continued his paperwork with his right arm, careful not to awaken the sleeping boy. Occasionally he would take a peek at him. He took the gorgeous sight of his partially open lips and his messy hair, and the smell of his minty breath mixed in with the faint smell of yesterday’s coffee. Whenever he stopped looking at Reid, he always seemed to notice JJ smiling at the two of them. The flight went by quickly and he regretted waking Reid from the nap he needed.  
  
Hotch sat in his office, doing more paperwork and taking the occasional sip of coffee, when he heard the sound of his office door open and close. He looked up, spotting Reid in the room looking a bit nervous and flustered and he felt himself smile and was a bit surprised at the fact that he’d been smiling more often. Hotch got up from the chair and walked up to Reid.  
“If you didn’t like me holding your hand on the plane and at the hotel,” he begun in a tiny voice, “that’s completely fine. It was probably awkward for you to wake up to your co-worker sitting in the corner crying because of thunder, or the fact that I kind of sort of have a crush on you and it’s completely understandable if you want me to not hold your hand.”  
Hotch cut him off by kissing him and his beautiful lips. After the initial shock, Spencer leaned right into the kiss. Hotch could taste Spencer’s coffee and his partially minty breath, and the way his slightly chapped lips felt made him feel breathless. Spencer couldn’t help but notice the intoxicating smell of his cologne nor the overwhelming great feeling of kissing his hard but soft lips. The kiss felt too short but they were breathless. When they pulled away, Hotch felt as if Spencer had a glowing aura surrounding him. They smiled at each other as they caught their breaths.  
“So does that mean I can still hold your hand?” Spencer said.  
—  
So there you go, my first fanfiction/one-shot. I hope it’s alright and thank you for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> i cringe so hard at this. oh, well thank you for reading !


End file.
